reason that I could discover! He said the U-League had requested it." Doctor Plemponi coughed. "Well, you know, Trigger, how sensitive the League is to personal notoriety." The eyebrow went up again. "Notoriety?" "Not in the wrong sense!" Plemponi said hastily. "But your name has become much more widely known than you may believe. The news viewers mentioned you regularly in their reports on Harvest Moon and the Commissioner. Didn't they, Mihul?" Mihul nodded. "You made good copy, kid! We saw you in the solidopics any number of times." "Well, maybe," Trigger said. "The cloak and dagger touches still don't make much sense to me. But let's forget them and go on. "When we get here, I manage to see Mantelish just once to try to find out what his requirements will be. He's pretty vague about them. Commissioner Tate is in and out of the Project—usually out. He's also turned pretty vague. About everything. Three weeks ago today I'm told he's gone. Nobody here can, or will, tell me where he's gone or how he can be contacted. The same thing in the Maccadon Precol office. Same thing at the Evalee Home office. Same thing at the U-League—any office. Then I try to contact Mantelish. I'm informed he's with Tate! The two of them have left word I'm to carry on." She spread her hands. "Carry on with what? I've done all I can do until I get further instructions from the people supposedly directing this supposedly very urgent and important project! Mantelish doesn't even seem to have a second in command...." Plemponi nodded. "I was told he hadn't selected his Project assistants yet." "Except," said Trigger, "for that little flock of Junior Scientists who keep themselves locked in with the plasmoids. They know less than nothing and would be too scared to tell me that if I asked them." Plemponi looked confused for a moment. "The last sentence—" He checked himself. "Well, let's not quibble. Go on." Trigger said, "That's it. Holati didn't need me on this job to begin with. There's nothing involved about the organizational aspects. Unless something begins to happen—and rather soon—there's no excuse for me to stay here." "Couldn't you," Plemponi suggested, "regard this as a kind of well-earned little
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